The National Hockey League and the NHL Players’ Association jointly announced a four-year extension of their collective bargaining agreement on Friday.
The deal will carry through the 2029-30 season — and while NHL commissioner Gary Bettman did not confirm details, multiple outlets have reported that the updated CBA will increase the NHL schedule from 82 games per team to 84.
“We can all look forward to at least five years more of labor peace of the Players’ Association and the NHL working together,” Bettman said. “While we didn’t agree on everything, we had a very constructive, professional, collaborative collective bargaining process, which I think you all know started (at the) end of March and April.”
The deal still needs to be ratified by a vote on both sides. Marty Walsh, who became executive director of the NHLPA in 2023, said that will take place “over the next week or so.”
Walsh said the players wanted a deal that was shorter than the 10-year agreement signed in 2013 and extended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had some players that came into this league under the last agreement and retired from the league under the last agreement,” Walsh said. “They never had a chance to really express their collective bargaining opinions or rights. Because generations of players change.”
The expanded season would not kick in until 2026-27, reports said, and would be accompanied by a preseason shortened from six games per team to four.
Reports also said that the new CBA would include a shortening of the maximum length of player contracts and would introduce a playoff salary cap, in an effort to prevent teams from gaming the long-term injured reserve list to legally exceed the salary cap come the postseason.
–Field Level Media
